The Stars in Between
by Haelwyn
Summary: The Dynames and GN Arms crash in an isolated rural village and are stranded until the Ptolemy arrives to pick them up. A couple of students on a community visit help them recover.    Where you think there is nothing, you'll find everything in between.
1. Prologue

Prologue

-.-.-

"You know, I never knew Bellatrix was the name of a star," Lily said excitedly, wide-eyed as she read away from her notebook. "Look, I found on this stellarium website that it's Orion's left shoulder."

"Yes, yes, Sirius, Bellatrix, Orion, okay. Can we go back in now? It's getting really dark," her partner said, sitting back lazily on the wooden bedframe they had dragged out into the middle of the sandy driveway of their foster house.

"Oh come on, it _has_ to be dark to go stargazing. Besides, the night is young! And we haven't even found the other constellations yet. We can't let a clear night like this go to waste," the dark-haired girl said, putting her notebook aside as she lay down next to Rebecca. "Alright, let's get started."

"Ugh, fine. Let's just get this over with already," Rebecca lay down and rolled her eyes at the darkening night sky.

"It's a good thing the sun sets early here. That's probably because it's a mountain to the west, no? And the sunrise is early because there's nothing but ocean to the east," Lily continued, waiting for the sky to darken.

"Yeah, just great. Perfect for little old nocturnal me," Rebecca mumbled.

"Oh look, the stars are out! Isn't it weird how when you squint, it looks like there are lines between the stars? It says in the stellarium we should see a couple of constellations right about-," she said, waving her arms straight up, making large circles towards the sky. "-there! Oh my gosh, can you see that?"

"See what? The never-ending darkness that envelopes the land every night? Wonderful."

"The three stars lined up - the four stars around them, ooh, that must be Bellatrix - Oh my gosh, it's Orion, isn't it! Awesome," Lily said, tracing the outlines with her finger.

"Alright, yay," Rebecca said, clapping dully. "Can we go back now?"

"And oh my gosh, is that bright star over there Sirius?" she said, pointing lower. "It looks like Canis Major, doesn't it, just like in the stellarium. That website is the _coolest_ thing ever!"

"Yippee for the amateur astronomer," Rebecca said, sitting up. "Look, as excited I am about your Harry Potter stars, I'd really like to get back in the house to check my notifications. Can I use your computer?"

"Go ahead. Ooh, just don't close the browser with the stellarium, alright? I haven't copied everything yet."

"Whatever you say," Rebecca said, her hands up as she got up and walked back towards the house.

"Oh wait, is that star moving?" Lily said, spotting a moving light across the sky.

"Probably an airplane, like all the ones you pointed out earlier," Rebecca shouted from the front porch. "And don't stay out too long, I need your help with some documents later."

"I wish it were a shooting star, though. Or a falling one. Maybe an asteroid, or a meteorite," Lily said, thinking out loud. "Hey, what do you think of a crashing UFO or something?"

Rebecca continued shouting from the front door. "Enough with your fanaticism, okay? I'm kind of tired of all your fictional ideas."

"Oh look, there's Gemini right there!" Lily's attention was diverted once more as she excitedly recognized the familiar-sounding constellations.

Stretching, she stood up and gathered her things. "Hah, not bad for someone who just searched this stuff online a few hours ago." Looking up, she yawned, her eyes squinting. "Heh, there really are lines between stars, aren't there?"

Yawning, she went back inside. And the shooting star continued to fall.


	2. Behind the Clouds, the Sun

(Well hello, hello. If you read my story before, you'll notice it's completely different now. I'm gonna give y'all one guess as to where this story's set, but you'll have to read the chapter first. It's somewhere mid-first season, just a based-on-my-current-situation fic. It's my first Gundam 00 fic, so read and review please.)

Chapter 1

-.-.-

Behind the Clouds, the Sun

-.-.-

The next morning, Lily jogged to the beach, just in time for the sunrise. In the city where she lived, one could watch the sea swallow the sun in a spectacular orange and gold sunset. But in this quiet town, the sea gave birth to the sun.

There are a lot of things you can do here that you can't do back in the city, she thought to herself, as she sat on a large, smooth rock on the sand. There's nothing; and yet there's everything. And so she watched the bright disc slowly rise from the sea, temporarily disappearing behind a patch of clouds on the horizon, before blinding her as it rose higher and higher.

When she got back to their foster home, Rebecca the owl was still asleep. _Tch_, she thought to herself, as she prepared breakfast for the two of them, eating her share, then showering.

A knock at their front door caught their attention. Hardly anyone visited this early. Still toweling her hair, Lily went to answer it, and was startled to see the _barangay_* captain standing at their doorstep. He was dressed casually, as usual, with a uniform jacket thrown over a shirt and jeans.

"Oh, Cap," she said briskly, throwing the towel onto a nearby banister. "Good to see you so early. Just finished a morning run, for exercise and all that. Experts recommend at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise 3-4 times a week," she caught herself rambling, then just gave an awkward stiff salute. "Sorry, Good morning, Cap."

"'Morning to you, but I'm not sure if you could call it 'good.' Listen, are you two up for some work today?" he said with his deep voice, expression troubled.

"Well -," Lily said, her voice faltering as she heard their bedroom door open. Rebecca was just stumbling out, hair disheveled and clothes askew. "One of us, at least. How about we talk about this on the porch… or at your office?"

"No time," he said, shaking his head brusquely. "Let's walk and talk," he said, before turning on his heel to leave. "Trouble arrived last night."

"Walk -? But where are we going?" Lily said, hurriedly grabbing her satchel and hat. "What kind of trouble?"

"The big kind, Miss. The big kind."

-.-.-

After leaving a quick note for Rebecca and their foster parents posted on the front door, Lily rode with the Captain in his diesel jeep, towards the _sitio_* higher up in the mountains. She noticed he carried his gun with him in its holster at his waist. She'd never seen him carry a weapon before, apart from the usual all purpose _bolo_* that everyone around here seemed to use. The firearm, and his dark expression scared her, and she suddenly wished she hadn't gone with him alone.

After a 15-minute bounce up the side of the mountain, they reached the midway point to the populated area of the sitio, where a waiting shed made of bamboo and thatch stood. The captain parked the jeep next to it, then quickly disembarked with a brusque "Follow me" to Lily.

Another 15 minutes were spent walking down a narrow trail barely visible from the road. It took them through a thick growth of banana plants that seemed to press on Lily from all sides, and closed in on her as they walked deeper. It would be difficult to spot anything through here, - especially a dead female student's body, gulped Lily.

"You know, people call these banana trees, but technically they aren't really trees. It's actually a herbaceous plant, since it's got just a pseudostem and not a real tree trunk," she said nervously, to distract herself.

Turning back seemed like a good idea, until the flora opened up into a large clearing of flattened plants.

Something about the place struck Lily as odd, but she couldn't quite place what, gazing around the flattened area that was easily 50 meters long and 30 meters across. She looked down at the flattened plants. _These are grown banana plants!_ - she realized. And they seemed recently flattened, fruit flies gathering at the edges of the devastation.

But she only had five seconds to take it all in before the Captain's voice beckoned her to somewhere to her right, deep within the brush.

She followed, and spotted a _barangay tanod_* sitting against a tree. The Captain whispered in his ear and motioned with one hand to Lily. The tanod, a short, stocky middle-aged man balding at the crown, followed his gesture and gave Lily a stern look. Lily shivered involuntarily as they continued whispering.

At last, they seemed to have come to an agreement as they shook hands and beckoned Lily to follow the tanod deeper into the brush.

There she saw a man lying unconscious on the ground, her attention first drawn to his unusual uniform, a stark white filthied, before realizing that the dark stains on his sleeves were blood, not just the thick mud of the area.

She threw an inquiring glance at the Captain, who simply nodded at the injured man. Lily ran to his side, opening up her satchel, her supplies and first aid kit. The tanod stood idly by as she nearly ripped the uniform off the dark-skinned, dark-haired man to expose the wounded areas.

As she treated the wounds, which were thankfully fairly superficial, she periodically looked up at the tanod, where he stood guarding what seemed to be another prisoner, wearing the same uniform; and the captain, who had his hands at his waist belt.

She took a deep breath and gathered up her courage to ask him "Who are these people? Soldiers? Enemies?"

He seemed to have understood at once, but hesitated in his answer.

"Pilots. They are Gundam pilots."

-.-.-

Notes:

_Barangay_ - smallest unit of government. Usually has a barangay captain and seven councilors.

_Sitio_ - a geographical partition (LOL couldn't think of a better term) of a barangay.

_Bolo_ - a short, slightly broad knife used for all sorts of things like chopping twigs, cracking coconuts, harvesting bananas, cutting tall grass, killing chickens, slicing people's throats, etc. There are specialized shapes for each job.

_Tanod/Barangay Tanod_ - a roving/patrolling guard, on minimum allowance from the barangay budget.

And for those who have an idea of what country this is, go ahead and take a guess in your review. If you guessed right and you're familiar with the language, you'll probably spot the pun/wordplay in the title. You can comment on that, too, if you like.


End file.
